


Cliché

by absolutelyCancerous (cal1brations)



Category: Free!
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Rei is a huge dork, but then again they're both big dorks so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 03:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1168174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cal1brations/pseuds/absolutelyCancerous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A train ride and a kiss isn’t exactly a date, is it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cliché

Rei has gone through this situation over fifteen thousand times.

Granted, those were all in his head, with his face stuffed in his pillow and the lights out as he pursed his lips and pretended the soft, linen-smelling cotton against his mouth was maybe perhaps not only a pillow, but Nagisa’s most-definitely-probably smooth lips.

He didn’t have to look at Nagisa’s bright, dazzling smile then. Have his heart skip a beat and make him fluster in all the worst ways that only seem to make the other boy smile like Rei himself is the most endearing person on this earth (which, logically, cannot be the case—  _agh_! Logic is what’s getting him into trouble here!)

Rei finds himself only staring at Nagisa’s mouth, watching pink lips stretch into a familiar grin, then settle into a fair smile. So very pink—

“Rei?”

He swallows forcefully, hopes it doesn’t sound like a loud gulp, and fixes his glasses once he notices they’ve been crawling down his nose in the past few minutes. He watches Nagisa look at him and giggle—no, legitimately  _giggle_ — and Rei tries very, very hard not to sigh (swoon) at the action.

He’s pretty sure this is called “lovesickness” and, although Rei is not a hypochondriac, he’s kind of certain he might have a particularly nasty case (strain? infection?) of the disease. Unfortunately, he did not read of any cures for such a thing that weren’t merely “take your mind off of it doing steps A, B, and C.” How disheartening!

Nonetheless— right! He’s trying to start (continue) a conversation with Nagisa. Right.

“You seem out of it,” Nagisa says, leaning over Rei curiously. They’re on one of the later trains home than usual, because of hanging out with the others after swim practice, and it’s normal for Nagisa to usually invade his space, but for whatever reason, Rei feels his cheeks heating up when Nagisa puts a hand on his knee, trying to look at his face better, his face is  _right there_ —

“Do you feel sick?”

Rei closes his eyes and slumps a little in his seat. “No, I’m alright.”

Nagisa’s lips purse— like he’s ready for a kiss, he’s almost  _asking_  for one!— and he moves back to his own seat, his shoes scuffing at the floor. The train is a little emptier (not actually  _empty_ , by any means at all) than usual, because it’s between late-afternoon and evening traffic, a lull in the schedule. However, having a little elbow room makes Rei’s heart beat a little faster, because him and Nagisa are still shoulder-to-shoulder here in their seats, only because  _they can be._

Rei’s got it bad, that’s for sure.

Nagisa sends a few texts on his phone, looks out the window for awhile, before resting his cheek on Rei’s shoulder and sighing loudly. Rei struggles not to wrap his arm around Nagisa (mostly because he’s not sure if he can execute the technique properly in these seats) and sits upright, glancing at him quietly.

“I think I got a sunburn,” he says with pursed lips, frowning a moment before lifting his head up and nearling coming nose-to-nose with Rei, looking rather distressed when there is no immediate answer from the boy.

“Well?” He asks, concerned. “Rei! Tell me if it’s bad! And be honest!”

Rei splutters. “It— it’s a little bit pink, if that’s what you’re asking. But—”

Nagisa whines at that, dropping his head down a little to sulk. It only lasts a moment, however, because he’s looking at Rei in the next second, frowning miserably.

“Show me where!” He says, and Rei tries very hard not to blubber nonsense in reply.

Because he can’t think of anything to say (read: an excuse not to marvel over Nagisa’s face for a few moments) in retort, he seals his lips tight, his hands carefully rising up to Nagisa’s cheeks, not yet touching his skin, however.

He looks for the places where he’s the most pink, and carefully begins by stroking his index finger down the smooth length of Nagisa’s nose. “It’s pretty bad here,” he says evenly, watching Nagisa let out a loud sigh of defeat. His fingers venture from there, smoothing out to the apples of his cheeks, surprised with the warmth, and Rei thinks that maybe it’s not sunburn that’s making his ears turn a little pink. “Here, too.” Finally, his fingers brush up, just above Nagisa’s blond eyebrows, and he traces the line that’s appearing on his forehead. “You’ve got a cap line, here, too.”

Nagisa watches Rei’s hands slowly fall, noting that little look on his face, the one that usually means he’s thinking too hard about something. However, he’s a little disheartened with the damages done to his face, and quickly presses his hands flat against his cheeks, squishing them.

“I used really cheap sunscreen today— I guess I’ll have to throw it away.” He sighs again, dismayed. “I didn’t think I’d get tanlines this early in the season, though!”

Rei feels himself blush as he nods in agreement. “I’ve gotten very tan recently, too.”

Nagisa smiles coyly at that, eyes narrowed as he leers at Rei, “I know. I’ve seen it in the locker room!”

Rei’s jaw drops. He doesn’t know what to say for a while because his mind is set on committing that statement to memory—  _I’ve seen it in the locker room_ _._  He watches Rei change? That should be uncomforting and concerning, in the least, but Rei can’t find it in himself to be disgusted, only awed and a little shy at the thought.

He really does have it bad.

Nagisa, however, is laughing at his own comment, swatting the air as if to physically push the subject aside. He’s about to open his mouth again when the next stop is announced— Rei’s. The blond boy frowns at his companion, disheartened that their fun will end.

So Rei does something stupid.

“Nagisa.”

“Hmm?”

He has gone through this situation over fifteen thousand times. Hell, probably twenty more times, in the past forty-five minutes they’ve been on the train together. Plus practice—

Rei stares at Nagisa. Watches Nagisa go from smiling widely to blinking owlishly to watching him back, lips parted oh-so-slightly, curious.

Nagisa inches closer, for every bit that Rei leans forward. Rei tells himself that he knows everything about this, that he’s not going to be one of those statistics about awful first kisses, because he’s been reading up on love confessions and kissing and every technique in the book for both of them for the past several weeks,  _he knows what he’s doing_ —!

He closes the space between them.

His glasses sit painfully on his nose when his face is pressed up against Nagisa’s. Ouch.

It’s kind of less of a kiss and more of a bottom-half-of-the-face pressed against each other’s. Nagisa seems to be in shock, because he does little more than sit there, unresponsive. Rei is not sure how long a kiss is supposed to be, because he couldn’t find a definite time in all of his research, so he kind of just counts in his head.

They part at thirteen.

Nagisa has a dumb smile on his face, he looks like he’s just tasted the best kind of candy, like he’s had the best kind of boba he could buy. He looks at Rei after a moment, his fingers gently touching his pink, pink lips, like he’s trying to save the sensation (which Rei is trying to do as well, just with a little less of a grin on his face.)

Rei feels kind of nervous, but sated in a way that isn’t really rewarded in instant relaxation. Instead, he hears his stop being called, and he moves to stand, swinging up his backpack from off of the seat beside his. He’s waiting for the train to stop—

“Rei!”

When he turns his head to look in his instigator’s direction, Nagisa is quickly holding him by both sides of his face, holding him in place as he smacks another kiss on his lips, sincere and kind of slobbery and so very sweet.

His glasses are a little crooked when they part, and Nagisa actually straightens them, with a delicate touch of his fingers and a smile that is contagious.

The train stops and Rei stumbles a little (staring at Nagisa’s lovely, pink face too much), but quickly he catches himself and nods at the other in goodbye.

Right after he steps off the train, he hears Nagisa yelling his name, and he turns back to see the blond poking his head out the opened doors to holler at him.

“Text me!”

Rei smiles and nods, waving, and trying to ignore the burning of his cheeks at he listens to the train leave the station. He pulls his phone out from his pocket, almost drafts a new text to Nagisa, then remembers coming across something that said to wait at least three days to talk to someone after… well, a  _date_ …

A train ride and a kiss isn’t exactly a date, is it?

To be sure, Rei doesn’t text Nagisa until he gets home and changes into something more comfortable than his uniform. When he picks up his phone from where he tossed it on his bed previously, there’s already a message from Nagisa:

_Heya, Boyfriend-Chan._ （ ´∀｀）☆


End file.
